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CHRIS BURNS: The World Cup nerve center at Germany's Interior Ministry, a kind of war room, packed with monitors to watch for any trouble when the Cup kicks off in June. They have been practising for months on how to coordinate a response. And the coordination is worldwide. In a pep rally of sorts, nearly 300 security officials from 40 countries held their last major meeting in Berlin. They sought to strike a balance with soccer kids and hard talk, aiming to welcome the millions of fans expected, and to warn any troublemakers that authorities are ready for them, too.
GERMAN INTERIOR MINISTER: ... the hooligans will have to, will suffer major problems. Because we have longed for this happen."
WORLD CUP ORGANIZER: Well,as far as I know, it's, it's hooliganism. I think they have been under control. But you never know.
CHRIS BURNS: German police will get international reinforcements.
NICK HAWKINS: Most of the European countries are sending police in uniform. It reassures the decent fans."
CHRIS BURNS: Not all the preparations have been so reassuring. In one exercise, rescue vehicles arrived late at the mock collapse of a public viewing screen in Berlin. In Hamburg, police faced off with mock hooligans but critics questioned how realistic the confrontation was. And a German consumer group said 8 of the 12 World Cup stadiums were inadequately designed to deal with a panic crowd.
CHRIS BURNS: World Cup organizers reject those findings but authorities here at Berlin's Olympic stadium where the final will be played July 9th, are having new gangways built, 29 of them to speed in evacuation. They insist they were long planned.
CHRIS BURNS: Amid concerns German police could be overwhelmed. Interior Minister Schaeuble defended plans to boost troop readiness for the games from 2000 to 7000. If there is such a situation that we all hope doesn't happen, when it needs a larger deployment, then we are ready for it", he says. Poking fun at the idea, one cartoonist asked whether troops were needed in case the Iranian team arrived with bombs strapped to their shirts.
CLEMENS WERGIN: He wanted to give it an absurd sign, saying you know we can deploy the army in the stadium if it's necessary, it's only if a team comes up equipped with suicide belts.
CHRIS BURNS: It's not easy putting a happy face on the monumental security operation that would be far from child's play.
Chris Burns, CNN, Berlin.
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